The San Francisco 49ers are bringing back Robert Saleh to fix their defense. A reunion that feels like rehiring a master chef after selling all his kitchen equipment. The symbolism is nice, but the cupboard looks awfully bare. “Through the halfway point [last season], this defense was playing some really good football, and there were a lot of injuries. [then] The wheels kind of fell off during the last four weeks of the season.” This is Saleh’s first assessment of Frisco’s D. Pretty on-point, we’d say.

Last season’s 6-11 faceplant saw the defense crumble from championship-caliber (12-5 in 2023) to outright unrecognizable. After all, their defense ranked 29th in the league in scoring as they allowed 25.6 points per game. They were tied for 7th-fewest takeaways with 17, and gave up 40+ points in back-to-back games for the first time since 2015. Plus, the injury report read like a laundry list. Dre Greenlaw‘s Super Bowl Achilles tear. Brandon Aiyuk‘s Week 7 ACL disaster. By Christmas, the unit looked less like NFL professionals and more like survivors of a particularly brutal flag football tournament.

Now comes the front office’s curious calculus. Instead of retaining their defensive identity, the 49ers held a fire sale on proven playmakers. Greenlaw. Ask anyone from the Faithful, and they’d tell you how he is a human exclamation point who sealed the 2019 division title with that legendary goal-line stand! Forget that. He even made an impressive return against the Rams in the 2024 season. He’s in Denver now. Talanoa Hufanga, their instinctive All-Pro safety who played like he had the playbook memorized? He’s also in Denver. Charvarius Ward? Their shutdown corner, who battled through unimaginable personal tragedy. He’d be suiting up for the Colts in the 2025 season.

Now, per the league insiders as cited by NFL Rumors on X, John Lynch is facing internal criticism for failing to retain all three defensive cornerstones. Which begs the question: what exactly is the plan here?

The “future flexibility” argument sounds reasonable until you see it in action. “The bottom line is you’re always looking years out,” Lynch explained. “We’ve got big things coming and needed to clear room to execute that vision.” Translation: They had to lose talent to pay Purdy. “We knew this would sting,” Lynch admitted about letting key defenders walk, “but getting younger and cheaper was non-negotiable.”

The timing of these defensive departures couldn’t be more awkward. Just as Brock Purdy prepares to play under his new $265 million contract, the defense that once covered his growing pains is being systematically dismantled. There’s an undeniable irony in paying your quarterback elite money while stripping away the very unit that helped make him successful.

The 49ers’ high-stakes experiment is now live. A complete defensive reboot with more questions than answers. They’ve swapped proven commodities for draft picks and hope. And now they are betting Saleh can work miracles with spare parts. This might look like genius in hindsight. Or it might look like the front office fumbled a championship window wide open.

What happens to Kyle Shanahan’s defense after John Lynch’s decisions?

The 49ers’ defensive makeover is shaping up to be their riskiest move in years. John Lynch’s much-touted “future flexibility” has left the cupboard surprisingly bare… A shaky safety tandem. A cobbled-together secondary. And linebackers so thin that Fred Warner might need to play both ways. Their grand plan? Banking on eleven rookies to grow up fast, which sounds about as reliable as counting on your lottery ticket to pay the rent.

Over on the defensive line, coach Kris Kocurek is putting on a brave face about all the new faces. He’s calling it “fresh blood,” though replacing veterans like Hargrave with rookies Williams and Collins feels more like a gamble than a strategy. The Bryce Huff trade could help the pass rush, but let’s just say his transition from Philly’s system might take longer than the 49ers would like.

Kyle Shanahan, to his credit, isn’t sugarcoating the loss of leaders like Greenlaw and Hufanga. After all, they are his “two favorite guys” who brought more than just talent to the locker room. But there’s only so much nostalgia can do when you’re staring down $86 million in dead money and a defense that looks like it’s held together with chewing gum and hope. When Shanahan says they were “working 20 things at once,” it’s starting to sound suspiciously like someone who forgot to do their homework.

Now comes the million-dollar question (or should we say $265 million, given Purdy’s contract): Can this offense outscore opponents while the defense learns on the job? The 49ers seem convinced their draft picks will develop faster than expected. It’s a bold strategy – one that could either make Lynch look like a visionary or have everyone wondering why they didn’t just keep the band together.